this is bbc news, the headlines at midday: police in croydon are treating a brutal attack on a 17—year—old kurdish iranian boy as a hate crime. six people have been arrested. the young person was asked where they were from and when they said they were an asylum seeker that is when that frenzied attack took place. a state of emergency has been declared in columbia after more than 250 people are killed in mudslides. many more are missing. at least 20 people have been murdered at a sufi shrine in pakistan's punjab province. johanna konta sets her sights on becoming world number one, after winning the biggest title of her career in the miami open. it's an incredible accomplishment, not just for myself, but also for my team and my family back home. also in the next hour, an obstacle puts today's boat race in doubt. a decision is expected later this morning after a suspected world war two bomb was discovered on the banks of the thames. and the conflicting exploit the

technology of sound with brian eno. —— the click team. good morning and welcome to bbc news. four men and two women have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a young asylum seeker was attacked in south london. police say they're treating it as a hate crime. the 17—year—old victim suffered severe head injuries but his life is not now believed to be at risk. andy moore reports. the young man, believed to be kurdish iranian, was waiting at a bus stop late on friday night with two friends when he was approached by a group of about eight people. he was attacked after telling them where he came from. we believe it is a hate crime. prior to the attack taking place the young person was asked where they were from and when they said

that they were an asylum seeker that is when that frenzied attack took place. police say the gang chased the young man around the corner into the street where they kicked him in the head and left him on the floor unconscious. after that a number of members of the public came to help him. the attack only stopped when the sound of sirens was heard. the gang made off in the direction of this nearby pub. the young man was left with a fractured skull and a blood clot on his brain. he is said to be in a serious but stable condition in hospital. his two friends escaped the attackers and received only minor injuries. the local mp said croydon had generally very good relations between people of different backgrounds. he called the incident an appalling crime against somebody who had come to this country to seek sanctuary. landslides in southern colombia have left more than 250 people dead. police and rescue teams are at the scene but their efforts

are being hampered by darkness and bad weather. many people are still missing and it's feared the number of people who lost their lives could rise. heavy rains on friday night caused rivers to burst their banks in the town of mocoa, flooding homes with mud. the local governor has called the situation in the city "an unprecedented tragedy". kevin doyle has the latest. a moving wall of water, mud and debris swathe large parts of the town of mocoa. many of its 40,000 residents have lost their homes, hundreds have lost their lives. this mountainous region has been experiencing unusually heavy rain in recent months. on friday, further downpours caused the mocoa river to burst its banks and cause a devastating mudslide. people were running for their lives. the mud pushed cars into buildings and ripped trees from the ground. streets are littered with huge

boulders and people are picking through crumbled buildings trying to find the missing and salvage any possessions. hundreds of people are still missing, many of them children. a list of their names and ages has been pinned to the walls of a family welfare centre the town. welfare centre in the town. translation: we have lost a baby who has gone missing. the rest is as you can see. a little baby and we cannot find him anywhere. it has been threatening to happen for some time. at the top there are unsteady lands, but this took us by surprise. one of those who came to see the devastation was colombia's president. translation: we do not know how many deaths there are going to be. we are still searching, but the first thing i want to say is that my heart, our hearts, the hearts of all colombians, are with the victims of this tragedy. thousands of troops and volunteers are working to find survivors. heat—seeking cameras and drones

are being flown over the debris. many roads have been washed away or are blocked, making it difficult to get rescue teams into the area. it is without power and running water. the red cross says it is crucial to find survivors within the first 72 hours. now three days after friday's devastation the death toll is expected to rise. earlier i spoke to arturo wallace from bbc mundo about the latest developments. the latest figures are 254 people dead, more than 200 still missing and everybody expects that that total will rise in the next few hours. of course it is massive. they said there are several neighbourhoods in mocoa, which is a town of nearly 50,000 people, completely destroyed.

they were saying it felt like the sea had actually come. it was three rivers that flooded, but it was like the sea came and completely struck big parts of the city. the number of fatalities will certainly rise and the governor was saying this was a historic catastrophe for that region of colombia. what about the provision for emergency help in colombia? is it quite good? yes, they do have experience and they do have the means, but the problem is mocoa is a very remote region, it is very difficult to access. especially in this rainy season roads are not very good, so everything has to be transported by air. that will certainly hamper the efforts to rescue and to reconstruct. as dmitri was indicating this is a critical period, the first 72 hours is really the only chance probably of getting people out alive. that presumably is the dilemma at the moment. it is still a rescue operation and at some point it becomes

a recovery operation. yes, absolutely. as he said, they are using thermal imagery, drones, everything they have at their disposal. of course there are instances in which people can be found after 72 hours. this is critical, but then of course miracles happen afterwards and i am sure colombians will be hoping that more good news will be coming from this sad fact. are there any other factors that could have exacerbated the scale of this? one thinks of things like deforestation or changes to flood defences and things like that. absolutely. there was a lot of water. everybody has been pointing to the fact that nearly 30% of the monthly rain in that region actually fell in one single day and of course that is a big part of the question. but also from where the city was established, the movement of the agricultural borders as they call it with people cutting trees and working on the land, that has certainly had an effect. and also garbage.

it is quite amazing when you go to these regions the amount of garbage, plastic bags and everything you can find near to the rivers in the places where the water should flow naturally. it dams it up. it forces the water to find another way. officials in pakistan say at least 20 people have been killed by the caretaker of a sufi shrine. they believe abdul waheed drugged people before killing them at the shrine in the city of sargodha in the punjab province. waheed and five of his aides have been arrested. our pakistan correspondent secunder kermani is in islamabad and has this update. it is not uncommon in pakistan for people to be killed in the shrines while undergoing exorcisms, being treated for bad spirits, people have on occasions been beaten to death. but this kind of mass killing really is extremely unusual as you would expect and it has shocked people here. what we know about what has happened

so far is that this incident took place in a shrine in a small village outside the city of sargodha. the man believed to be responsible for the killing, 50—year—old abdul waheed, was a caretaker at the shrine and also a spiritual leader. local residents in the village have been reported as saying that some of his followers would regularly be beaten as a form of dispelling bad spirits. on this occasion the police say they believe abdul waheed called his disciples into a room and drugged them and began attacking them with knives, machetes and clubs. around 20 people are believed to have been killed in the incident. abdul waheed and two alleged accomplices have been arrested. the chief minister of punjab has called for a full enquiry into the incident. at the moment he is in custody presumably. what sort of police investigation is taking place? the police have said that the suspect has reportedly

confessed and said that he killed these followers of his because he believed that they were out to kill him. so the police have been suggesting that perhaps the suspect was mentally ill. that is one of the lines of enquiry. but this incident just took place last night so the enquiry is still in its early stages. people from the european union could still have the right to live and work in the uk without restrictions until at least 2020, according to a government minister. speaking on the bbc earlier this morning, the defence secretary sir michael fallon said there could be no timetable for the end of free movement from the eu. our political correspondent ellie pricejoined me a little earlier. it was said even in the campaign that it was unlikely that the government would be able to control immigration. even michael gove said it, obviously a prominent figure in the leave campaign last year. it is interesting what he said.

obviously we have heard a lot this week about the article 50 letter being sent over by theresa may and then we heard the eu council's draft guidelines on how it wants the negotiations to go. lots of letters backwards and forwards, lots of talk about how the negotiations might go, but we have not heard an awful lot about what the content might be. so today michael fallon, the defence secretary, was asked on the andrew marr show about this issue of freedom of movement, whether there would be any chance he could give us any suggestion about what the timing could be and he said simply no because the negotiations have not started yet. here is what he had to say. we have made it clear that we are leaving the european union, we are leaving the single market, we are leaving the customs union, and we will no longer be under the ambit of the european the european court ofjustice. but it's also clear we have to avoid a cliff edge. we need to give business and the various sectors of our economy the certainty that they need that there won't suddenly be a huge difference

between the day after we leave and the day before. and we set that out and the prime minister set it out in her lancaster house speech that we will do everything we can to avoid the cliff edge and therefore there will be inevitably for some sectors implementation periods. the interesting thing about the timing that the interviewer was pointing out was 2019 is when we are planning to come out of the eu and there is a general election in 2020, so the suggestion being we might not have this issue of freedom of movement and immigration sorted by the time the conservatives go to an election, which obviously would be an extremely important political point in that election campaign. you can imagine people picking up on that slogan about getting control of our country back if we are still not in control of who can live here and who is entitled to come here without restrictions. and clearly the government not wanting to tie themselves in knots about having a time frame where they need to make sure that this issue of immigration needs to be sorted.

it is an incredibly difficult issue. on the flip side michael fallon said he does not want britain to be in any way set a cliff edge in certain sectors in any deal we might have with the eu after 2019. all of that makes the whole question of the future of gibraltar very interesting because if that, along with the uk being out of the uk, it has that border crossing with spain and that of the eu, it has that border crossing with spain and that could become quite contentious as it has been in the past. absolutely and the issue of gibraltar is one we have been talking about plenty over the last couple of days and the issue that it was not even mentioned in the prime minister's letter and should she have mentioned it? what the government is trying to do is step back from that a little bit and say, negotiations have not even actually started yet. we have had a lot of fanfare this week about what the negotiations might look like, letters backwards and forwards, but the government is trying to reel itself back and say we cannot comment on every individual issue here and let's wait for the negotiations to start.

we will have plenty to talk about over the next two years. police say today's oxford and cambridge boat races are expected to go ahead despite the discovery of what's thought to be an unexploded second world war bomb in the thames. the device was spotted near putney bridge close to where the race begins. our sports reporter, kate grey is in putney for us. there you are. hello. behind you is the river. how farfrom there you are. hello. behind you is the river. how far from where you are at the moment is what is to believed to be this unexploded bomb. if you look over my shoulder we have putney bridge and the unexploded world war ii device was found the other side of the bridge. this side of the bridge is where the race will be starting this afternoon. you can imagine what the race organisers yesterday were going through, wondering what the safety procedures

they would have to take. to take you through what has happened over the last 2a hours, around 2pm yesterday afternoon this device was founded, washed up on the side of the river thames just the other side of putney bridge. the police were called to the scene and overnight they took the scene and overnight they took the necessary safety procedures to remove the device and ensure everything was safe enough for the race to run. the police have let us know that they expect the race to go ahead this afternoon. there will be ahead this afternoon. there will be a final update at one o'clock to give the final go—ahead. we have seen all sorts of boats and safety people around making sure that everything is as prepared as it should be to allow this big event to go ahead. they are expecting 250,000 people to spread along the banks of the river thames to watch this historic race that has been going on for163 historic race that has been going on for 163 years. it is a big part of

the racing history for this event to ta ke the racing history for this event to take place and to see oxford and cambridge go head to head. there will be some reserve races that take place first of all and then at 4:35pm the women's race will take place. oxford are the defending champions, but cambridge will be hoping to avenge their loss from last year when they almost sank halfway through the race. they will be hoping to put that right today. then it is the main race, the men's race at 5:35 p.m.. this has been going on for 163 years. over the course of the years it is still very close. cambridge have 182 times and oxford 79 times. every year getting across that finish line first is so important to these guys and it is such a fierce rivalry between them. as you can see the weather is pretty spot on for rearing conditions,

there is very little wind, the river is smooth and in the next couple of hours they will decide which side of the river they will choose to race on. that will have a big effect on how the race unfolds. they are expecting the race to go ahead and there will be a final statement at one o'clock to say it will go ahead will stop you can watch live coverage of racing from 4pm on bbc one. the women's race goes ahead at 4:35pm and the men's race at 5:35 p.m.. 4:35pm and the men's race at 5:35 p. m. . thank 4:35pm and the men's race at 5:35 p.m.. thank you so much for that update. we will keep our fingers crossed for the announcement at one o'clock. the headlines on bbc news: police in croydon are treating a brutal attack on a 17 —year—old kurdish iranian boy as a hate crime. six people have been arrested. a state of emergency is declared in colombia after more than 250 people are killed in mudslides. many more are missing. at least 20 people have been murdered at a sufi shrine

in pakistan's punjab province. that is a pretty comprehensive round—up on the boat race, but richard is at the sport centre. i know you have plenty of other things to tell us about. johanna konta says she's aiming to become world number one after sealing the biggest title of her career at the miami open. konta will rise to seventh in the world when the new rankings are announced tomorrow. she beat former world number one caroline wozniacki in straight sets to seal her third world tour title. earlier, we asked former british number one annabel croft what she thought of konta's performance. it was an absolutely fantastic achievement yesterday, one of the biggest achievements we have seen since virginia wade winning wimbledon in 1977. as she did not even play her best tennis, it was a jittery match against caroline wozniacki, but once she got that first set under her belt, she completely overpowered caroline

in every department. her returning and serving were aggressive and she had very aggressive groundstrokes to the back of the court. two years ago she was ranked 147 in the world and all of us knowjust how hard she has been putting in the hard yards in the practice court and off court as well. she worked with a mental coach who has sadly has now passed away, but he helped put in a lot of improvements. all the jigsaw pieces seem to be coming together. the calibre of the players she played this week. venus williams, simona halep and the former number one yesterday caroline wozniacki. an amazing achievement. there are two games in the premier league today. middlesbrough travel to swansea for the lunchtime kick off, while at four manchester city can reclaim third place with a win over arsenal at the emirates stadium. arsenal have fallen to sixth after losing four of their last five matches in the premier league.

i think it is two teams who, when you look at the numbers, have the best numbers in the final third of the league, so it promises to be a very positive, attacking game. both teams really attack, we go for it, so it should be a promising game. i travelled with barcelona and bayern munich and it was always so difficult. sometimes we lose, sometimes we drop. it is always difficult because it is the emirates, it is a top team, always fighting to be in the top four, so i know how difficult it is, but we have a good chance to make a step forward. to make a step forward. celtic will win their sixth consecutive league title if they beat hearts. that match kicks off in around 10 minutes.

brendan rodgers's side are 22 points ahead of their nearest rivals aberdeen in the scottish premiership. the job was to win it in the best way we possibly could. there are different ways to win. people will tell you that you can win something and then it not be the same feeling, but to win and fostered the spirit we have here throughout the whole football club can make it easy special, and also the way we have played football. bbc sport understands that shelley kerr will become the new manager of the scotland women's team. kerr twice led arsenal ladies to fa cup success and has also managed hibs, kilmarnock and spartans. she'll take overfrom anna signeul, who will step down after this summer's european championships having been in charge for 12 years. charley hull's hopes of winning the first golf major in the women's calendar, the ana inspiration tournament, appear to be over going into today's final round in california. she finished second last year, but after a round of 71, she's eight shots behind this woman, america's lexi thompson, who heads the field on 13 under par overall. get out there today and play pretty

solid. a lot of the putts just slipped out. i am looking forward to tomorrow. you never know what will happen. you never know what will happen. fingers crossed, i will have more in the next hour. the parents of a baby with a rare genetic condition have reached a £1.2 million crowdfunding project for treatment in the united states. charlie is receiving 2a hour treatment at london's great ormond hospitalfor a rare condition. his pa rents a re hospitalfor a rare condition. his parents are challenging doctors in court to keep him on a life support. the chancellor is to urge indian businesses to use the expertise of the city of london in the latest attempt by ministers to build trade links outside the european union. philip hammond's trade mission to delhi and mumbai is part of an effort to build a partnership with india as it tries to forge a future as a global

manufacturing powerhouse. our business correspondent joe lynam has more. depending on how britain quits the eu, the city of london is set to lose thousands ofjobs in the coming years, as some banks and insurers leave to remain in the single market. now the chancellor, philip hammond, is hoping to court new customers for britain's financial services expertise. he leads a delegation of business leaders, as well as the governor of the bank of england, mark carney, to india this week, hoping that indian companies will use the city of london to fund the estimated £1.2 trillion of spending needed to modernise india's infrastructure. the government also hopes to use the trip to open new markets in india for companies like transferwise, part of britain's rapidly growing financial technology or fin—tech sector. all of this forms the backdrop for a comprehensive free trade agreement which britain hopes to sign with india once it formally leaves the eu. but that won't be easy — india has yet to sign any free trade deal with anyone and one stumbling block could be a demand by india

to allow its citizens free movement to and from britain. a former government advisor is calling for a change in the law to force doctors to tell the authorities when a patient is no longerfit to drive. the campaign started after the death of three—year—old poppy—arabella clarke who was killed crossing the road by a pensioner who'd been warned to stop driving because of poor eyesight. barrister daniel sokol who has advised the ministry of defence and ministry ofjustice says the authorities shouldn'tjust rely on the honesty of the patient. if the patient says, of course, doctor, i will stop driving, and does not, then that usually is not followed up. you may have someone on the roads at the moment who is as blind as a bat, or who may have an epileptic seizure, and could cause tremendous harm to other people. the group that calls itself islamic state took control of iraq's second largest city mosul

two—and—a—half years ago, damaging priceless assyrian and sumerian antiquities in a campaign to erase elements of cultural history. now key parts of the city are under the control of the iraqi security forces. our middle east editorjeremy bowen has been to see the damage done to mosul‘s museum. these were the statues of gods, sumerian gods, and they were were great big statues with wings, feet with claws, and the faces and torsos of humans. you can see on it cuneiform. cuneiform writing is one of the earliest kind of alphabets, of the earliest kinds of alphabets, about 5,000 years old, and it's considered one of the greatest contributions to civilisation. and this wasn'tjust cultural vandalism, though it was that, it was an attempt to remake history, to destroy a civilisation, to destroy a memory. the things that contributed to making this part

of the world special. inside there are large... what were once, i suppose, exhibition rooms. high ceilings, pillars, it's a classic museum. now, in other buildings here, other parts of the museum here, you can see that this wasn'tjust an exhibition hall, it was a working museum. a place of research. and when they came here to destroy all of this, they were also trying to create something new. their caliphate. a return to the golden age of islam. but far from being that, it turned into the exercise of a brutal, vicious tyranny. rumbling. you hear the noise outside? it's brought war down onto the iraqi people once again. our middle east editor jeremy bowen reporting. a student whose mother and

13—year—old brother who died after being stabbed at their family home have visited the scene today to lay flowers for the family. his mother tracey and his brother piers died at their home in stourbridge. she described her brother is making eve ryo ne described her brother is making everyone smile. our own barley has been charged with murder and attempted murder. it's ten years since the rotary young citizen awards began. since then, hundreds of young people who've done amazing things have been nominated for awards. one of them is 11—year—old harvey parry, who lost both his legs when he was baby, after contracting meningitis. in 2014, when he was just eight—years—old, he won an award for his sporting

and fundraising achievements. harvey's been telling us how, since then, he's been trying to get more amputees interested in sport. my name's harvey, i'm 11 years old and i won the rotary young citizen award in 2014 because of my sporting achievements. when harvey was a little baby he caught meningitis and had to have both his legs amputated above the knee and his right—hand fingers. rotary helped me get my first legs and then they helped me get a wheelchair. harvey went on every year to run in america. today he has got about 23 gold medals. harvey has been very influential in persuading the government that young children need blades to enjoy their life. it was announced that all amputee children in the uk will be given sport limbs. he likes sport, he likes to run and play with his friends, and he's met lots of other amputees and he can actually win and feel good about himself. i got to watch the england cricket team train for a bit and then i actually got to play with them. they are actually quite good bowlers, to be fair!

all this week, the bbc news channel will be featuring the stories of past and present award winners. and next saturday, we'll be broadcasting the ten year anniversary ceremony, live from manchester. that's at 10.30am next saturday morning. now, let's take a look at the weather prospects and it is all good news ahead. nice and sunny weather out today, very different compared to yesterday with all those shower storms and hailand with all those shower storms and hail and thunderstorms as well. today if you are very lucky you might catch a light shower in these eastern areas, but they will only be very light. it is a nice day,

temperatures up to 17th in london, for most of us it is 13 or 14. the winds are light and the sun is strong, perfect. this evening it is clear and by the early hours of monday morning it clouds over in the western parts of the uk, so there will be rain in belfast early on. a bit of mist and fog early on on monday morning. the rain pushes into northern ireland, western scotland and into the north—west of england and into the north—west of england and scotland and wales by the middle of the afternoon. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: six people have been arrested after what's been called a brutal attack on a 17—year—old kurdish iranian boy in south london.